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Harvard Prof. George Whitesides delivers speech about origin of life at UNH

Submitted by Ashley Gessert on Mon, 03/21/2016 - 16:35

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Highly credited scientist George Whitesides recently addressed a group of curious students and professors at UNH, where he delivered his speech about the origin of life as part of the Harold A. Iddles Lecture Series.

After being introduced by the chemistry department’s chairperson Glen Miller, Whitesides started his lecture began by discussing the chemistry that shaped life.

Using complex chemical equations, the celebrated scientist started developing a hypothesis about how life is formed and the different sorts of conditions essential for that to happen.

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Addressing a group of around 50 people, Whitesides asked, “What does it mean to be alive? … Maybe me standing here is some weird form of chemical processes. This is probably the hardest problem we’ve ever worked on.”

Christian Ryan, a senior at UNH, said Prof. Whitesides has a very solid theory about the origin of life on the planet, adding that his presentation was amazingly dense in chemistry-based concepts.

The Harold A. Iddles Lecture Series has been held annually since the year of 1961, when Prof. Iddles retired. The chemistry department and alumnus have been funding the widely renowned lecture series in his honor.